The two-day Global Strategic Threat and Response (GSTAR) 2022 on ‘Evolving Global Order: Challenges and opportunities’ was organised by the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies from 19-20 October 2022 in Islamabad, Pakistan. Dr Arif Alvi, President Islamic Republic of Pakistan inaugurated the international conference. He congratulated CASS for organising the second edition of GSTAR and commended the Pakistan Air Force for always being at the cutting edge and producing heroes in the history of Pakistan. The Welcome Address was delivered by Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, NI (M), Pakistan Air Force. On this occasion, the Air Chief announced the formal inauguration of the flagship National Aerospace Science and Technology Park (NASTP). The initiative is aimed at establishing technology parks and Aviation Design and Innovation Center (ADIC) in four major cities of Pakistan (Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi & Kamra) to give impetus to the process of indigenisation and technology drive as well as promote industry-academia linkages for innovation-led economic growth of the country. The Concluding Session was presided by Air Marshal Muhammad Zahid Mahmood, HI(M), Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force. Air Marshal Farhat Hussain Khan, HI(M), SBt, President, Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies, Islamabad, Pakistan, delivered the Vote of Thanks. 16 papers were presented at this year’s GSTAR by leading international and national scholars representing seven different countries including Canada, China, Germany, Latvia, Pakistan, United Kingdom, and United States of America. GSTAR 2022 was attended by nearly 500 delegates each day. More than 110 print and electronic media covered the full two-day event.
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Space-Enabled Warfare in the 21st Century: Pathways for Developing States
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‘States tend to overestimate themselves or the benefits and swiftness of war, and to underestimate their opponents’ capabilities, intentions, or the costs and duration of war.’ If anything, the 2026 war initiated by the United States and Israel against Iran shall be remembered in the annals of warfare among the most visible manifestations of this dynamic.
The war, immediately preceded by the January mass protests in Iran, did not represent a sudden rupture but rather the continuation of a 47-year-long confrontation and a more intense phase of the June 2025 war.
The US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, defined the war’s objectives as being laser-focused: to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities and its security infrastructure, while ensuring that it could never develop nuclear weapons. Beyond these stated objectives, among the priorities on the continuum also lay the objective of regime change, with both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu explicitly calling on the Iranian population to take over the government at the outset of the war.
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